Mallory's Super Sleepover (6 page)

“Girls, watch me.” Mom gives a cupcake icing and decorating demonstration. Then she points to the lineup of bowls along the counter and on the kitchen table and explains how Mallory’s Super Sleepover Cupcake Decorating Contest is going to work.

“First, you choose a vanilla or chocolate cupcake. Then you pick your icing.” There are bowls of vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and lemon on the counter.

“Can we use more than one kind of icing?” asks Zoe.

Mom smiles. “I never thought of it,” she says. “But I don’t see why not.”

I picture a four-layer iced cupcake.

I’m not the only one thinking about the possibilities. Everyone starts talking at the same time. Mom holds up her hand like she’s not done and wants everyone’s attention. “When you finish icing, it’s time to decorate.”

She points to the bowls of sprinkles, candy hearts, chocolate chips, silver and gold balls, mini umbrellas, and bottles of squirt icing. “As you can see, you have lots of options. Take your time and be creative.”

Mom puts her arm around Crystal, my favorite babysitter who has come to help out for the night. “Mallory’s dad and I are going to go on a walk. Crystal is in charge while we’re gone. When we come back, we’re going to choose the winning cupcake, and then we’ll put a candle in it and sing
Happy Birthday
to Mallory.”

Everyone looks at me, and I grin.

“OK, girls, time to start decorating,” Crystal says.

Mom wishes us luck as she leaves the kitchen.

Everyone grabs cupcakes and knives and gets busy icing cupcakes.

“This is fun,” says Emma. She and Mary Ann slather their cupcakes with pink icing. Pamela starts with vanilla. April chooses lemon, and everyone else picks chocolate.

“Icing cupcakes is hard,” says Emma.

“Let me show you something,” says Crystal. She takes the knife from Emma and shows her how to smooth the icing along the top and edges of the cupcake.

I try to copy what she’s doing, but it’s not so easy. Little bits of cupcake keep getting in my icing.

“Will you help me?” April asks Crystal.

As soon as Crystal takes the knife from April and starts spreading icing, Crystal's cell phone rings. Crystal puts the knife down. When she looks at her phone, she smiles. “Girls, keep icing. I’ll be right back.”

I wink at Crystal. I know it’s her new boyfriend on the phone. Lately, that’s who she’s always with on the phone.

April starts icing again, but she looks like she could use some help. There’s just as much icing on the kitchen table as there is on her cupcake.

And she’s not the only one having trouble. Mary Ann has used so much icing you can’t tell where the kitchen table ends and her cupcake begins. Arielle’s cupcake falls off the counter. When she picks it up, chocolate icing smears all over the floor. “Oops!” she says like she knows she made a big mess but didn’t mean to. Danielle drops her knife, and icing sticks to the counter, the cabinet, and the floor.

“Time to switch,” Zoe announces like she liked her idea of using lots of kinds of icing.

Everyone starts passing around the bowls of icing. Pink and yellow and white and brown goo gets all over the counter and table.

Zoe’s cupcake is piled so high with icing it falls over. Pamela tries to top her cupcake with gold balls, and it rolls off the table. Danielle and Arielle start laughing.

“Time to decorate,” Zoe announces like she’s the one in charge of the cupcakes.

Everyone reaches for the bowls of decorations and bottles of squirt icing and starts piling different toppings on the cupcakes.

“This is really fun,” laughs Emma as she covers her cupcake with sprinkles.

“Look at mine,” says April. Her cupcake looks like a tower of chocolate chips.

Mary Ann covers the edges of her cupcake with red squirt icing and adds silver balls.

A few minutes later, there are as many sprinkles and candy hearts and gold and silver balls and chocolate chips on the floor as there are on the cupcakes. Red and purple and green squirt icing is all over the counter. The kitchen table has so much icing and decorations on it that it looks like a giant cupcake.

Arielle sticks an umbrella in her cupcake and looks at the clock. “I’m done,” she says like she’s ready for another activity.

Danielle nods like she agrees. “What’s next?” she asks.

I look around the kitchen and groan. I need to get Crystal, and we need to clean up this mess. She’s not going to be too happy when she sees it, but Mom and Dad are going to be even less happy.

I start to tell my friends that what’s next is we need to clean up the kitchen before Mom and Dad get back, but Danielle interrupts me. “Look outside!” she screams.

Everyone runs to the window.

Max and his friends Adam and Dylan are standing beside a huge pile of water balloons.

“We’re going to get soaked!” screams Arielle.

“We have to start making balloons,” says Danielle.

“To the bathroom!” yells Zoe before I can say anything else.

She and Emma grab a handful of balloons off the counter and run toward my bathroom. April and Pamela grab another handful and follow them. Arielle and Danielle are right behind them. A messy kitchen was bad, but making water balloons in the house is even worse. Water is going to get everywhere.

I turn to Mary Ann and give her a
your-my-best-friend-and-I-could-use-your-help
look. “We have to clean this kitchen up before Mom and Dad get back.”

But Mary Ann turns my head so I’m looking at the pile of water balloons in the backyard. “If we don’t start making balloons and fast, what Max and his friends are going to do to us is a whole lot worse than what your parents are going to do to us.”

Before I can say that I see the big pile of water balloons the boys have made and I also see the big mess in the kitchen, Mary Ann is running down the hall like she wants to do her part to fill up balloons.

I look at the kitchen. I try to wipe some of the icing off the counter, but when I do, it just smears everywhere and makes a bigger mess. I can feel sprinkles sticking to the bottom of my feet. I don’t know where to start cleaning.

Even worse, I don’t know if I should clean up this mess or try to prevent another one from happening.

I wish I had a sign that said
stop filling up water balloons in the house and help me clean up the kitchen.
But even if I did, I don’t think anyone would read it. There’s a huge stack of water balloons on the floor of my bathroom. My friends are getting ready for battle.

Part of me thinks we should stop and clean up, but the other part of me knows we’re going to get soaked if we don’t defend ourselves.

I need someone to help me decide which part of me I should listen to. “Maybe we should get Crystal and clean up the kitchen before Mom and Dad get back,” I whisper to Mary Ann.

She looks at me like I’ve lost something and that something is my mind. “We don’t have a moment to lose,” says Mary Ann.

“We’ve got to attack when the boys are not expecting us,” says Arielle.

“It’s all about surprise,” says Danielle.

“They think we’re in the kitchen decorating cupcakes,” Zoe says like she’s sure we’re going to outsmart the boys.

Maybe my friends are right. “But what about the mess in the kitchen?” I ask Mary Ann.

She ignores my question like the kitchen is not what we need to be thinking about right now. “Bathing suit time!” Mary Ann proclaims.

We all scramble around my room and change into our suits.

“OK,” Mary Ann says when everyone is done changing. “It’s time for the battle to begin. Remember our strategy: Surprise the boys. Go quietly and hit them hard. Take as many balloons as you can carry.”

Everyone starts grabbing balloons. Some of them break while people are grabbing. Zoe drops one on the floor of my bathroom. Emma starts laughing and she drops one too. There are broken balloons and water everywhere. My bathroom looks like a swimming pool.

“C’mon!” Mary Ann whispers. “Let’s go!”

Everyone grabs balloons and follows Mary Ann out my door. Pamela drops balloons in my bedroom and so does April.

My room is just as big of a mess as my bathroom.

Balloons drop as my friends walk down the hall toward the living room.

“Maybe I should get Crystal to help us clean some of this up,” I say to Mary Ann.

“Quiet!” says Mary Ann like she’s more worried about the noise we’re making than the balloons we’re dropping.

I look at the puddles of water on the floor. I feel like I can see Mom’s and Dad’s faces reflected in them. I don’t see happy faces.

“OK,” Mary Ann whispers as we approach the living room. “Ready.”

Each girl tries to hold one balloon in her throwing arm and the other ones with her free arm. But my friends aren’t very good at this. Balloons start dropping all over the living room floor.

Mary Ann ignores the mess. “Aim,” she whispers.

It’s my party, and I wish I could focus on the water balloon fight, but my mind keeps thinking about Mom and Dad and what they’re going to say when they see this mess. I try to use my now ten-year-old brain to think what I should do.

“Your parents won’t be back for a little while,”
it tells me. “
Go get your babysitter and tell your friends to help you clean up the messes in the kitchen and the bathroom and your bedroom and the hallway and then have the water balloon fight.”

I silently thank my brain.

That’s a really good plan. I put my balloons down. I knock on a coffee table to get everyone’s attention. But when I do, Mary Ann looks at me like I just gave away our whereabouts.

“FIRE!” she says in her
you’ve-blown-our-cover-so-we-have-no-choice-but-to-attack
voice.

And before I have a chance to ask my friends for their help, they start running through the living room to the backyard. Water balloons start flying. And not all of them are flying outside. Some of my friends start throwing their balloons before they even get out of the living room.

I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I pinch myself to make sure I’m not having a bad dream, and unfortunately, I’m not.

There’s water and broken balloon pieces on the carpet, on the furniture, and dripping down the walls. Even the curtains are wet. When I pictured a water balloon fight, I pictured me having a good time. I pictured it outside in the backyard, not in my house. I never pictured me standing alone in a messy, wet house.

I hear screaming and laughing outside in the backyard. My friends start running back through the house to get more balloons.

Then I hear another sound.

It’s not laughter or screaming. I hear the front door open and shut. Then I hear footsteps and talking. It’s not kid footsteps or talking. It’s adult footsteps and talking.

Then I hear something even worse. My name.

“MALLORY!”

Mom and Dad are in the living room standing in front of me with their arms crossed. Crystal is beside them. I can’t decide who looks madder.

All of a sudden, I feel as wet and soggy as the room around me.

My friends run back in the living room with an armload of balloons. When they see Mom and Dad and Crystal, they stop.

“Mallory, what happened?” asks Mom. She looks around the room like nothing I say could possibly explain it.

Before I even have a chance to talk, Mom keeps going. “Mallory, you and your friends were supposed to be in the kitchen decorating cupcakes. The kitchen is a big mess, and there’s water and balloons all over the house.”

I look at Mary Ann. I am hoping she can do something, give me a sign, anything, to help me out of this mess. And she does. She moves her eyes in Crystal’s direction and gives me a
she-was-supposed-to-be-the-one-in-charge
look.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. It’s the perfect explanation. I know why Mary Ann is my best friend. She’s so smart.

I look at Mom and Dad. “None of this would have happened if Crystal had been doing her job,” I say. Then I look at Crystal. “She was outside talking on the phone to her boyfriend.”

Crystal looks like she’s a puppy who just had an accident in the house and is getting in trouble with her owner.

“Mallory, I shouldn’t have been outside, but all you had to do was come and get me.”

She makes it sound like I’m the puppy owner and it’s my fault the puppy had the accident in the house because I didn’t open the door and let her outside. Crystal always looks happy, but not right now. I’ve never seen her look so upset.

I don’t like being the one she’s upset with, but I don’t know what else I could have said.

Dad clears his throat. “Girls, Mallory’s mom and I are not happy about this mess. You’re all going to have to help clean up.”

Mom goes to the kitchen to get sponges and rags and a mop. Dad walks Crystal to the door. I watch as she leaves. She doesn’t even say good-bye.

I’ll have to fix things with Crystal later. Right now, I have another mess to clean up. Actually, I have several.

I grab a rag and start scrubbing the floor. The only thing that is a bigger mess than the kitchen and the living room and my bedroom and my bathroom is this sleepover.

I cross my toes.

I sure hope things improve.